Overclockix 3.8 preview

[Arkaine23]

Overclockix 3.8 released

This pic is of the chroot environment, which is to say I haven't recompressed it or built the iso (and that's why some of superkaramba's data is empty). I still have work to do configuring fluxbox and icewm.

!!!New!!! - You'll be able to edit just about every file and install/remove software while running from CD thanks to unionfs. Changes would not be saved across a reboot of course without a little extra work and HDD space....



Highlights

By no means is this a complete list of what's been added.

UI's- KDE 3.4 | icewm | wmaker | fluxbox

2.6.11 kernel (support for lots of wireless cards added)
chntpw (windows password-changer and registry editor)
smarter folding service (up to 8 clients auto-generated)
folding log webpage generator (see folding@home info)
boinc
mprime
cpuburn
memtest86
cpudyn (for mobile cpu's)
powertweak
prelink (use prelink -amR regularly)
lm-sensors
gkrellm
ksensors
bonnie++
nvclock
zsplit & unzsplit
j2re 5.0
flash/java/vlc/acroread/mplayer mozilla-firefox plugins
firefox (tweaked a little for speed)
thunderbird
openoffice
gimp
unionfs (allows writing to entire filesystem when booted live)
ndis-wrapper
captive-ntfs (2.6.11 is supposed to have safe ntfs writing support, but I tossed this in anyway, it will not work until a new patch comes out however)
mplayer & w32codecs
vlc
gftp & ncftp
mldonkey-gui
extra truetype fonts
bittornado
new themes/styles/window decorations (new look is slick)
New kspalsh, openoffice spalsh
superkaramba & themes
kweather
filelight (this is a neat gui disk useage display)
New service menus (managing iso's, run as root, edit as root, scan with f-prot)
f-prot (virus-scanner)
updated to newest packages (unstable)
preconfigured samba shares (root and home)
smb4k (samba browser)
knemo (network monitor)
synaptic (package manager GUI)
nano (easy text editor)
silver xcursors
nxclient (remote x server/client)
rdesktop (Windows remote desktop client)
vnc server and client
konsolewrap (displays working directory on konsole buttons)
bibletime
john (password cracker)
webmin
wine


Still pending-
verify knoppix-install script functionality
look into both read-ahead and squashfs for better performance running from CD

 

[fireburster]

woot cant wait. I need to redo my overclockix box and this would be a good time. I have two 80gb in my shuttle and xp on one and overclock on other. I want to just have one 80 in two 40 parts.

 

[tenchi86]

Wow man this is awsome looking.

 

[Kris]

Looks great! Can't wait for the release!

 

[gulp35]

This sound great...all the things we are looking for - Ability to easily read CPU temps (we still can't); Ability to have a small HDD hold some data on the headless to hold configs, and maybe backup the FAH data and be able to thin down the client.

Any idea when this will be ready..were ready to upgrade!

Keep up the good work!

 

[TollhouseFrank]

visually looks great. can't wait to try it out

 

[Arkaine23]

Sorry for the delays. I found a new toy (apt-build), and have been busy optimizing the majority of what's installed in Overclockix 3.8 for i686. I'm using common and safe Cflags like -fomiti-frame-pointer and -O3. I have a feeling those familiar with Gentoo will be pleased.

 

[Flamed_Chip]

Should help give overclockix a speed boost. Can't wait to see it.

 

[Kris]

More I see the more I like. Nice work Arkaine!

 

[Arkaine23]

Optimizing stuff is slowing the process down and making the size of the iso get larger very quiickly. I'll optiize choice selections rather than 50-80% of what's installed. Apt-build is there for those who install this OS to play with.


But here's the good news....

Now with 100% more KDE 3.4!!!!!!!

Posted from optimized firefox.....

 

[Flamed_Chip]

Using LD_FLAGS optimization and some heavily optimized C Flags in Gentoo, Firefox opens about 5 times quicker than on Windows XP. It does seem to take longer to compile things with more agressive C Flags though, makes sense I suppose.

Does Overclockix use prelinking? If not you could look into that to reduce load times.

 

[Gnufsh]

Optimizing stuff is slowing the process down and making the size of the iso get larger very quiickly. I'll optiize choice selections rather than 50-80% of what's installed. Apt-build is there for those who install this OS to play with.


But here's the good news....

Now with 100% more KDE 3.4!!!!!!!

Posted from optimized firefox.....

If you use -O2 instead of -O3 you waon't get as big of a size increase (-O3 doesn't buy most things much anyway).

 

[Arkaine23]

It's all prelinked. My optimized firefox kept freezing up and I tried weaker and weaker optimization, but no go. So I replaced it with the standard package, prelinked it, and did the usual http pipelining and 0 ms delay for rendering a page tweaks.

Added this slick KDE logout screen fade (looks like XP when you logout). I couldn't get kdebase to build optimized either and since I was patching ksmserver for the above-mentioned tweak, I wound up using dpkg to make a .deb from the modified sources (no optimization).

Still KDE 3.4 is slick, the tooltips look awesome (sse new snapshot in first post). Wrote some simple documentation, moved the HDD & CD & floppy icons into a "My Computer" folder on the desktop. Mixed and matched some icons...

It's compressing now. I was hoping to use squashfs but I'd have to rebuild the and repatch the kernel for a ton of stuff, and edit the miniroot initrd. So I'll settle for using a -b option for the compression which I was unaware of until recently.

It's beta of course and will be uploaded with minimal testing. Perhaps I'll verify the installer works as I need a re-install on a box running 3.7....


I'll know in a little while how muich space I have to work with to add more stuff. Already this is the cleanest build I've ever done.

QMD's have really cheesed me off lately. My new folding service is able to enable bigpackets on one or more clients if there is enough ram present, but the QMD's and lack of BP gromacs right now forced me to disable that function except for a single client and set the minimum ram variable much higher.

 

[Arkaine23]

Space is tight, oh well...

Because of Unionfs you can always install whatever you need even when running live. Here's what I was hoping to be able to fit on there...

abiword
quanta
nagios
amarok
kde-i18n-* language support for KDE

 

[Nnyan]

I've been waiting to get my hands on this so i can play with it. Right now I only have Ubuntu and FreeBSD on my linux boxes.

 

[orion25]

When will the official release be available??

 

[Arkaine23]

Always a pressing question. I'd hoped it would be ready two days ago, but alas- iso size too big, followed by isolinux errors, jumbled kmenu and missing kicker icons, fubarred sudo and su, and borked up folding service.

Of course these problems were all very easy to fix, and while fixing them I had more time to polish it. I'm giving this iso a decent test drive before I release it.

If/when my server finishes rebuilding it tonight, I should know if the latest fixes took and whether or not I'll be uploading it this AM.

Edit-

iso size: 683MB
status: uploading to overclockix host
It will be tested this evening when I get home from work, and if all is well, I'll post the link.

 

[TollhouseFrank]

can't wait to trest run it, troy. if its as good as the last one, you'll have a winner. (and no competition from borgix.... LOL)

 

[Kendan]

Any news on release ETA? Waiting patiently

 

[Arkaine23]

It's up!! http://overclockix.octeams.com